Essay 5c: Part Two 

Time Travel

Question: How did the art and iconography of the Scythians, belonging to the eastern European steppe region, influence the art and iconography of the Celts, situated in the central and western regions of Europe?

Part One
Summary: My experience with this essay was one of great satisfaction. While writing the first essay pertaining to the Celts, Vikings, and Scythians, I believed the Celts and Scythians were only connected indirectly through the Greeks. After mind racking research, I finally discovered that the two cultures most certainly had a direct connection. With Scythian tribes migrating as far north into Europe as western Poland, and early Celtic cultures existing in Germany at the same time, it is more than probable that the two cultures interacted. 

Reason: The reason why I asked this question was primarily out of person curiosity. After writing the first essay, I had continued reading a book I own about the Celts. As I was reading, I began to realize that there may actually be a connection with them and the Scythians. Thus, I set off determined to discovered if a connection did actually exist. 

Purpose: The purpose of this question was to discover how a culture residing in Eurasia could have been connected to another culture residing in western Europe in order to understand how influences in art and iconography could travel such long distances in a world barren of modern technology.

Direction: In the research for this essay, I focused more on the history of the Celtic and Scythian cultures than I did to the art of each culture. After creating my own map which displayed where each culture extended to in Europe, and at what time period, I then began searching for any early Celtic art that had a Scythian appearance. I then added these items to my map to be able to see exactly where they were found. In doing so, I made great discoveries that I will not mention here because they are in the essay.

Impressions: I had one particular moment in my research of this essay that caused me to jump from my seat and proclaim "Oh my god! I found something important!". This moment took place when I found a piece of Scythian art that had an almost identical design to a piece of Celtic art that I had found early on; both are displayed in the essay. While I had found Celtic art that had Scythian-style details, nothing had had such a close resemblance as these two pieces. 

Part Two     

Answer: In my last essay, which discusses the connections between the Vikings, Celts, and Scythians, I focused primarily on the Vikings and the Celts, stating that there may have been an indirect connection, via the Greeks, between the Celts and the Scythians. After further research, I have found that there is no doubt a serious connection between the Celts and the Scythians, but not through the Greeks. While both cultures traded with the Greeks, there are influences that appear in both cultures art that are primarily Greek. For the Celts, these Greek influence were obtain through settlement in the Po Valley down to Greece, and into Turkey. Since the Greeks had various settlements in the Black Sea region, this is were they influenced Scythian art. The major connections between the Celts and the Scythians takes place north of, and along, the Danube River in areas such as modern day Germany, Poland, Austria, Hungary, and other countries throughout northern Europe.

Kelermes mirror. gold. 6th C. BC.

It is thought the culture of the Scythians originated in the Lower Volga region of Russia, or in Central Asia. The exact origins are unknown. However, "In the seventh and sixth centuries [B.C.] Scythian culture spread northwards into the forest steppe and westwards into the eastern foothills of the Carpathians...extending southwards from there to the Danube delta" (Europe Between the Oceans. Cunliffe, Barry. Yale University Press. 2008. p. 304). The art of this region is unique to the Scythians, but has many Greek influences. For instance, the Kelermes mirror is "entirely Greek in concept and decoration except that the animals attending the Mistress of the Animals included beasts stylized in an entirely Scythian manner" (Europe Between the Oceans. p. 306).

Scythian pectoral. Gold. 4th Century B.C.

These beasts that are portrayed are one of the trademarks of Scythian art. Almost every piece of Scytian art contains a variety of griffins, horses, stags, and panthers. One of the most common themes when more than one animal is portrayed, is the use of a griffin attacking a stag or horse, which can be seen on the Scythian gold pectoral at right. This animal style is important because it is what finds a way into later Celtic culture, which is forming within the Atlantic coastal and central regions of Europe in the 7th and 6th Centuries B.C.; but I'll get back to that.

While the Scythian groups that resided around the northern parts of the Black Sea were influenced by Greek culture, other groups, located further north and away from the Greeks and the central Scythian world, began to move westward. These groups "moved into the Carpathian Basin in the late seventh or early sixth centuries BC and settled in two separate areas, Transylvania (central Romania) and Alfold (north eastern Hungary and south-western Slovakia)" (Europe Between the Oceans. p. 306). This movement placed the Scythians closer to people of the Hallstatt culture existing in southern modern day Germany. The people of the Hallstatt culture are considered to be part of the Celtic culture. In some writings, they are not considered to be Celtic, while in others they are, but either way, the Hallstatt culture develops into the Celtic culture.

The Scythians who migrated into the Alfold region of Hungary has come to be known as the Vekerzug culture, which is dated to the sixth and fifth centuries BC. To the west of their location "the river Danube formed a very definite boundary with the Hallstatt cultures of central and western Europe, but Scythian-style material is found extending both to the west and to the north, with concentrations in the Upper Sava valley (Slovenia) and in Silesia (south-west Poland)" (Europe Between the Oceans. p. 308). In the south-west of Poland, a handful of Scythian-style artifacts have been found. Items found within one area, Vettersfelde, in western Poland, consist of primarily warrior gear and some golden jewelry. One of these items in particular caught my attention.

Trimming repousse. Gold. early 5th C. BC - embossed disk. gilded silver. BC

The object in gold pictured at right is piece that was discovered with the Vettersfelde treasure, is considered to be Scythian, and dates to the beginning of the fifth century BC. The object to the right of this piece is what is considered to be a Celtic silver gilded, embossed disk. This item was found further to the west in the northern Netherlands. Unfortunately, I was unable to find an actual date for this item, but it is dated to the BC period. When I had originally found this piece of Celtic metalwork, I immediately thought that it appears to be incredibly Scythian influenced due to the use of fighting beasts. When I then found the gold piece from the Vettersfelde treasure, I was absolutely amazed by the overwhelming similarities between it and the Celtic disk. The use of beasts, which appear to be either lions or panthers, or maybe even dogs, around the outside edge of the circles is almost identical in both pieces. The major difference is that the Celtic piece has one more beast around the edge, and also includes a human fighting a beast in the center. Even with the Celtic additions, it is more than easy to see that the Scythians had a major influence on Celtic art.

                       1. Schwarzenbach Bowl. gold covered. 420 BC    2. Rodenbach arm ring. gold, bronze. 4-5th C. BC                         3. Wieskirchen plaque. gold, iron. late 5th C. BC.  4. Wieskirchen belt plaque. bronze, coral. late 5th C. BC.

 In my research, I found that the Celtic artifacts that most closely resemble those of the Scythians have been found to the north of the Danube River, primarily in areas within modern day Germany. Some examples are included above; all of which have been found within the borders of Germany. The Schwarzenback bowl has an incredibly Greek appearance, and is done in the same manner as the Kelermes mirror. This piece could be influenced by the Scythians who probably had Greek objects with them when they migrated west. Or it could be influenced directly by the Greeks, who traded with the Celts. The other three objects, an arm ring and two types of plaques, have aspects that can be related to the Scythians. All three contain images of human heads that have similar characteristic; the shape of the eyes and eyebrows. The arm ring and the belt plaque both contain beasts that have a Scythian appearance. The beasts in the belt plaque are griffins, which appear frequently in Scythian artwork. All four objects are dated within the 5th Century BC, which closely coincides with the arrival of Scythian cultures in Poland and Slovakia.

      Disk from Auvers-sur-Oise. gold & bronze. early 4th C. BC

All four items are placed within the La Tene period of art work that took place after the 6th Century BC and is one of the richest periods in Celtic art. The La Tene period is what replaces the Hallstatt culture of the 7th-6th Centuries BC, and therefore the influences made by the Scythians on the Hallstatt people would have worked its way down into the La Tene culture. Within the same time frame as the La Tene culture, or style, Celtic art that was developing closer to the Atlantic contained the aspects of an early  insular appearance. There are a lot of spirals, swirling figures, and vines in the art of this period.The disk to the right, found in northern France, contains the swirling figures and spirals. It also has an appearance similar to that of the Schwarzenbach bowl, which could come from either Greek or Scythian influences. This "vegetal style" takes hold in the western portions of the Celtic world.

Eventually, the rise and expansion of the Roman Empire gradually pushed the Celtic culture into the regions of the British Isles. Here the culture would stay strong maintaining a primary vegetal appearance until the arrival of the Angles and the Saxons in the 5th Century AD. These groups would bring Germanic influences into the Celtic culture of the British Isles. These influences include various forms of beasts. It would not be surprising if the use of beasts by the Angles and Saxons have their origins in the intermingling of the Scythian and Hallstatt cultures. Both tribes were situated in the north of Germany. Also, these two cultures were located just south of the Norse cultures. This is important because styles characteristic of the Scythians, the Norse, and the Celts, exist in the Anglo-Saxon art the takes over, and becomes, the Celtic art of the British Isles after the Anglo-Saxon invasions. Aspects of all of the cultures would eventually be incorporated by the Celtic monks working on illuminated manuscripts in the 9th Century AD and onward.